The Treasure Box
by BiblioMatsuri
Summary: A set of interconnected stories taking place in an AU setting. Rated for swearing.
1. The Ramen Stand

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

BGM: "Asuka" by Rin'.

* * *

The Ramen Stand

A girl hurried through a crowded marketplace. She wore a plain blue top and faded brown wrap skirt with straw sandals and a yellow-and-white checkered scarf over her head. She had pale skin and short blue-black hair, with messy bangs that fell over her eyes.

She slipped on a damp patch, catching herself and checking her sandal to make sure the strap hadn't broken. She adjusted the basket in her hand, fussing with the cloth she'd put over its contents to protect them from road dust and dirt. Finding nothing wrong and no further excuse to dither, she drew herself up and walked as fast as she could through the cramped spaces between stalls.

She arrived at her destination a few minutes, several more slips and many muttered apologies later. She looked up, seeing the familiar sign. "Ichiraku," she whispered. Setting her shoulders, she pushed aside the cloth wall and stepped into the stand.

The stand's owner and head chef, Teuchi, gave her a polite nod and a quick smile before returning to his cooking. No sense in offending a good customer. His niece Ayame was more forward, grinning at the younger girl and greeting her with a cheerful, "Afternoon, Hyuuga-san!"

The girl stopped, relaxing. "Good afternoon, Ayame-san."

Most of the tall stools were unoccupied, with only a somewhat rotund boy bearing the spiral tattoos of the Akimichi and a thin, sleepy looking boy that almost certainly had to be a Nara taking two seats at the end. Happily chatting with them from over the counter was the person she'd come all this way to see, gesturing wildly to make some point or more likely just for effect.

The girl was at the counter before she realized she'd walked forward. Blushing as she realized what she'd done, she opened her mouth to apologize, for what she couldn't quite tell. Before she could get a word out, the subject of her worry turned and greeted her with his usual enthusiasm.

"Oh, hi, Hinata-chan!" he all but shouted. It seemed he was also showing his usual tact.

The girl froze, terrified that someone had heard him speaking. When no outcry rose up, she mentally berated herself. _This is the Outer Ring. No one is going to know that name._

She sent him a somewhat wobbly smile, too polite and, truthfully, nervous to scold him for his carelessness. After all, a street urchin, no matter how charismatic and determined, could not know how much risk they were both in with her here. Sliding into the third seat, she nodded politely at the other customers, but they didn't seem to notice. The Akimichi was, understandably, rather absorbed in his food – an extra-large bowl of pork ramen. The Nara seemed to have gone to sleep as soon as his part of the conversation ended. Putting them out of her mind, she looked up at him, paradoxically feeling safe for the first time in weeks here in a little food stand in one of the poorest parts of town. Startled, she realized he'd said something and she hadn't been listening!

"Ah, w-what?"

He blinked, confused. Then his shoulders slumped and blue eyes seemed to go even bigger. "Aw, Hinata-chan. You were off in dreamland again?" he whined.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly.

He just shrugged a little and held out a hand. Hinata blushed as she realized how close together they were, then looked at what was in his hand.

"Um, Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"Are these ad-admission tickets t-to the fireworks show?" she blurted.

"Yep!" he chirped.

Turning even redder, Hinata sank down in her seat. _Naruto-kun wants to take me to the fireworks show! No, no, I can't assume, he might just want to ask me for advice on whom else to ask. Yes, that's probably it._

"Eh, Hinata-chan? Are you okay?" he asked blithely.

She smiled at him. "Y-yes. I'm all right."

"Great! So, you'll go with me?"

Her eyes widened, and she nodded frantically. "Yes!"

Suddenly, Ayame rapped Naruto on the head with a ladle, waving it in the air for emphasis as she scolded him. "Naruto! No flirting with customers at the counter. Go on to the back, there's onions in need of peeling and slicing, and they've got your name on them."

"Ow," he whined. "Ayame-neechan, do I have to? Onions always make me cry."

"Go. Do work. Now." She said this last with the ladle held threateningly close to his head, a distinctly aggravated look on her face that promised pain to a certain slacking errand boy.

Said errand boy decided to use the better part of valor and, stuffing the tickets back into a pocket, he smiled apologetically at his friends and hurried off to the onions.

Hinata looked at her lap, her good mood gone into thin air. _I couldn't even answer him._

After a few moments of sitting there wringing her hands, listening to the hiss and bubble of cooking ramen noodles and the clatter of kitchen instruments, interspersed with the occasional order (from the cooks) or question (from Naruto), she heard a quiet, steady tap on the sanded wood counter. Looking at the countertop in front of her, she saw a tanned, bony hand withdrawing into a loose sleeve.

"Finally," the Nara boy muttered. "I thought you were going to sit there moping all day. Women are so troublesome."

Knowing he was probably right, she said nothing.

He glanced over at her, then rolled his eyes and mumbled something incoherent that was probably a complaint. "Look, Hyuuga-san-"

"H-how did you-" she interrupted, and promptly clamped her mouth shut in embarrassment. Of course he knew. All anyone had to do was look at her eyes to learn what clan she belonged to. She had the pale features and straight dark hair that were nearly universal in Hyuuga, and besides that, her eyes were nearly white and had no visible pupils. Many a passerby unfamiliar with her clan's bloodline had either jeered at the pathetic little blind girl, or more rarely offered to help with her basket. She started as she remembered why she had decided to come to the Outer Ring that day.

"A-ayame-san!" she called.

Ayame turned, obviously impatient due to her preparations for the lunch rush, and asked Hinata what she wanted.

Hinata lifted the basket and moved the cover back. "Th-these are some of the early pears from the castle gardens."

"Oh, really?" Curious, the older girl shook a few drops of broth off the ladle and used her free hand to whip the cover off, picking one up and inspecting it. She murmured appreciatively. "Those look very nice. Thank you."

Hinata smiled. It always felt nice to help people.

Ayame looked up at her, raising an eyebrow. "So, you came all the way here from the Upper Ring just to bring me, Tou-san and Naruto some pears?"

Hinata hesitated. "Um…"

Ayame just shook her head, shooting the younger girl a knowing look. "You won't get in trouble with your bosses for taking off work, will you?"

Hinata blinked, confused, then tensed as she belatedly remembered she was here as a servant running an errand. "N-no, I will be fine! I only have to return to the Hyuuga manor by evening," she assured Ayame.

Satisfied, the assistant chef relieved Hinata of the basket and vanished somewhere, returning a minute later and going straight back to work. Hinata only sat back on the stool as well as she could and looked back at the countertop. Then she felt the prickle she got when someone was watching her, and turned to see the Nara boy half-glaring at her.

"Yes?" she inquired.

"Hyuuga-san, like I was trying to say, Choji here and I come here pretty often, and we've known Naruto for a while. He's on break in less than half an hour, so you've got enough time to eat something. At least you won't just be fretting over nothing." Done with his good deed for the day, he turned away and, with an unenthused prayer of thanks, started on a single bowl of miso ramen. Incidentally, his friend was on his third.

Hinata stared for a moment. She thought back to the other times she'd been to Ichiraku and, glancing outside at the sun, realized he was right. Naruto worked at Ichiraku's six days out of seven, but almost all of them were half-days. If he was working the morning shift today, then he would get a five-minute break before the lunch rush started. It had not been part of his initial contract, but had been added in when it became clear that a frazzled Naruto was often a dangerously clumsy Naruto. It was less than an hour before noon, so she would have just enough time for a bowl, and there really was no sense in sitting there waiting and worrying. She leaned forward a bit, trying to get one of the cooks to notice.

Teuchi turned and spotted the girl. "Are you ready to order, Hyuuga-san?"

Hinata nodded. "One small vegetable ramen, please."

The man smiled jovially. "Coming right up!"

* * *

A/N: I seem to be incapable of writing long chapters.

Please read and review. Constructive criticism would be especially appreciated.


	2. The Schoolhouse

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

BGM: "Sakitama" ("Soul of Happiness") by Rin'.

* * *

The Schoolhouse

Raindrops dripped off the tile roof. Drafts came in through the cracks, sending chills up the children's spines. Restless, they squirmed on the hard wooden benches, trying not to show any discomfort.

Not all of the children cared enough about dignity to sit and shiver. One blond boy in patched and faded kimono had left his seat and curled up near the radiator, sticking his tongue out at the other students. A boy with wild brown hair yelled at him for a minute, then remembered the teacher wasn't around and, scooping up the miserably cold puppy in his jacket, went to join him.

"Kiba-san! What are you doing?" scolded a pink-haired girl in the front row.

"Getting out of the cold. What's it look like, Haruno?" he answered from his now nicely-warm spot on the floor.

"Wanna sit with me, Sakura-chan?" the blond boy piped up.

"Ew!" Sakura wrinkled her nose at him. "Not a chance, Naruto. You're gross."

The blond just slumped down and smiled harder. Not at all discouraged, he kept trying to convince the pinkette to join him.

The other boy and the puppy ignored Naruto's antics in favor of keeping an eye on the door. Suddenly stiffening, Kiba jumped up and barked, "Sensei's coming! Everyone, make like nothing's happening."

Kiba reached down to grab his companion, but the puppy's jaws were firmly attached to one of the legs of the radiator. "Aw, come on, Akamaru. If he finds out I was out of my seat, Sensei's gonna kill me. Or worse…" The boy shuddered and lowered his voice. "He'll tell my mom, and we'll both be in for it. You know she hates being bothered on Council days."

Akamaru immediately let go and bounded up to Kiba's usual seat. Kiba shoved him off and sat down just as a tan, brown-haired man with a harried look came through the door. Scanning the room, the man shook his head.

Crossing to his desk, he threw a glare at the boy huddled against the wall. "Naruto! What have I told you about leaving your seat when I'm not in the room?" he snapped.

"Not to?" the boy asked innocently.

The man drew in a breath, and, reading the warning signs correctly, Naruto sprang up and ran back to his seat. He vaulted over his desk and plopped himself down. "Safe!" he shouted.

The man swallowed his rant and, vein twitching, turned to the Inuzuka boy. "For future reference, Inuzuka: If you don't want me to know you've been sneaking around, then don't sit there panting like you've just run a marathon."

"All right, class, I have your grades for the first exam right here," he said, waving the sheaf of papers in his hand at the students. "Come to the front when I call your names."

Not bothering to look at the list, he double-checked which students were present and, finding no unexpected absences in need of investigation and detention, began handing back the graded tests.

"Aburame Shino."

The boy walked down to his teacher, giving the man a polite nod of thanks.

"Akimichi Chouji."

The boy hastily wiped off crumbs from his ever-present snack and took the paper. "Thanks, Iruka-sensei."

Iruka smiled at his nice, non-headache inducing student. "You're welcome." He called the next few names, hoping there wouldn't be any further incidents.

"Haruno Sakura."

A skip and a jump, paper snatched out of his hand and a shrill squeal. "Perfect 100. Beat that, Ino-pig!" the girl gloated.

A blonde girl in the back immediately shot back something about her oversized head being her only asset.

Their exhausted teacher closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. At least they weren't likely to come to blows with him in the room.

"Inuzuka Kiba."

The loud thumping of the boy's shoes on wood, contrasted with quiet whimpers from inside the boy's jacket. The boy swallowed hard, opening one eye to peek at the paper. Then he jumped up and punched the air. "I passed," he grinned up at his friends.

"Kimura Itsuki."

A quiet blue-haired boy in the first row sat up ramrod straight, then got up and walked the short distance to his teacher. He thanked the teacher and went back to his seat. The boy looked at the paper, green eyes dimming in disappointment. Then he yelped as an apple core bounced off the back of his head. He started to protest, but Iruka cut the brewing altercation short.

"Miyamoto Izumi."

The fuschia-haired girl swallowed the last bite of her apple, smirking down at her prissy rich-boy victim as she passed by. The boy shot her a venomous glare. She flounced down the walkway between desks, carelessly scrunching up the paper without even looking at her score. Iruka frowned in disapproval, making a note to have a talk with the girl after class.

"Nara Shikamaru."

Still half-asleep, he plodded down and collected his paper, looking unconcerned at his perfectly average score. Muttering a thank-you to the teacher, he went back to his seat.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

Instantly, the background mutters and whispers hushed. The subject of unwanted attention got up and, blank-faced, took his paper and folded it in half. His fan-club and the assorted rubberneckers whined in complaint. They wanted to see.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

The boy jumped out of his seat, rushing down the walkway. He grabbed the paper, looking eagerly for his score, shoulders barely falling as he realized he'd failed yet another of the dreaded written exams. Iruka felt a pang at the near-unnoticeable show of disappointment, but pushed it down. If Naruto wanted to pass this class, he had to study just like everyone else.

Sasuke spotted it from his usual spot at the very back, half-smirking at the smaller boy's failure. That would teach the little upstart to even think he could challenge the last Uchiha.

Naruto noticed the smirk and climbed up on Itsuki's desk, deaf to the boy's protests at dirty footprints all over his notes. "What the hell are you looking at, you bastard?"

Iruka yanked the boy down, giving him a fierce glare, and before he knew it, Naruto had a detention slip in his hand to go with the lousy test score. He scoffed and trudged off to his seat. No point in skipping this close to the end of the day.

"It's official. Sensei sucks," he muttered. "Ow!"

Iruka casually tossed another piece of chalk in the air. "Is there anything else you'd like to share with the class, Naruto?" he asked in a very unfriendly tone.

Naruto gulped. "Eh… No, Iruka-sensei."

The man nodded, going to the last two names on his list, distant cousins.

"Yamanaka Ino."

Already upset because she hadn't gotten to see Sasuke-kun's test score, not to mention how Sakura of the giant forehead had beaten her out for test scores again, she forced a bright smile onto her face and took her paper. Whatever her score was, it would still be less than Billboard Brow's.

"Yamanaka Isamu."

A somewhat girly-looking boy with buzzed-short blond hair and multiple piercings rolled his eyes and slouched over to take his graded test paper. He looked over the first page, shrugged, and thanked the teacher. He turned to go, but the teacher had his shoulder in a vise grip. The boy turned, suddenly realizing what he'd just walked into.

"Yamanaka-kun," Iruka said sternly. "You've missed the last seven, _seven_, parent-teacher conferences. You _will_ be there for the next one."

The boy nodded frantically. "Yes, sir, I mean sensei, I mean-"

Iruka sighed and let him go, watching the boy run back to the safety of his desk. It had been a very long day, and it wasn't over yet.

* * *

A/N: Part 1 of 2 Iruka-centric chapters. Part 2 will be up soon.

Also, virtual cookies to anyone who can guess who I based Itsuki and Izumi off of. Hint: At some point, one or both of them will be teaming up with a talking cat.


	3. After School

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

BGM: "Ibuki" by the Yoshida Brothers.

* * *

After School

Iruka slumped down at his desk, hiding his head in his hands. Three major arguments, countless minor ones and one all-out fistfight, and those were just the ones he'd seen.

Miyamoto had been sent home with a paper to be signed that would doubtless be impeccably forged and turned in tomorrow, and he didn't even want to know how. Kimura's would likely have three pages of complaints attached to it, most along the lines of why his teachers hadn't "trained the weakness out of him" yet. As if that ever helped.

Inuzuka-kun's behavior ordinary left a bit to be desired, but "letting" Akamaru-kun drool all over the stack of homework assignments had been the last straw. He'd be coming in tomorrow with a properly signed slip, and for good reason. His mother was terrifying.

Iruka shuddered, remembering how he'd met the woman. He'd been playing a particularly intricate prank involving six buckets of variously colored paint, glitter glue and a lot of string, and it had hit one very short-tempered clan head. He'd spent a good three hours doubling back, crossing streams, even covering himself in mud to hide his scent like he'd been taught, and she'd still found him – and tied him to a tree branch, and then laughed for a few minutes before asking how an Academy brat had even known half those trails were there. If that had been a stink prank instead of a glitter paint prank… His younger self had dodged a very pointy kunai there.

And then there was Naruto. Oddly enough, other than sitting near the radiator (which was understandable, since his clothes were worn thin), he'd been quite quiet and reasonable. All right, other than the usual complaining and juvenile insults, but Naruto only ever stopped talking when he was sleeping. No, this was suspiciously familiar. The boy was planning a big prank, which meant Iruka would have to keep an eye out. Even if he wasn't the target, he was almost always the one who dragged Naruto back to receive his latest punishment.

_That reminds me, do we have enough floor cleaner? I'll have to check on my way out._ Iruka sighed. This was another one of those days that just wouldn't end. _And I still have a low-intensity torture session to suffer through – I mean, a parent-teacher conference to hold._

He rubbed his eyes, squinting against the remaining sunlight slanting through the windows. Time to gather his notes. He hoped that Mizuki-sempai had found the Yamanaka clan's resident Academy-aged delinquent. Iruka did not want to have to explain where the boy had disappeared to in less than an hour. An hour, ha! He knew from personal experience that with a little ingenuity and quick reaction time, escaping from authority figures could take as little as two minutes. Yamanaka-kun and Naruto were both walking proof of that fact, as well as, somehow, the chronically lazy Nara-kun.

Iruka opened his desk drawers, looking for the parts of Yamanaka-kun's file that were allowed out of the archives, as well as his own records of grades and assignments. Someday, he would get around to setting up a proper filing system. In the meantime, he'd just have to make do.

Finally spotting the file he needed, he dug it out from under what looked like a pile of old letters. "How did those get there?" he mused.

Tossing the papers on the desk, he went out to the hall to see if Mizuki-sempai was back yet. No luck. Iruka forced himself to relax, raising his brows and smoothing out the worry lines in his forehead. _In-2-3-4, hold-2-3-4, out-2-3-4, in-2-3-4…_

He gave up and went back to pacing around the classroom. Just a few more hours. Just one more meeting with Yamanaka-kun's parents, just one more formality observed, and he could go home and load up on headache pills and mindless talk radio.

Iruka glared at the clock. It stubbornly continued ticking away one second at a time. He muttered something uncomplimentary about paperwork in general and deadlines specifically. This was the worst part of his job. He was supposed to instruct, advise and discipline his students. Even when his students did something stupid, it didn't make them any less his responsibility. Parents that refused to understand that their child did not want to be in the special track anymore and would be perfectly happy in a civilian career should not have been his problem. But they were all too common, and children of those parents either repressed or acted out. Acting out was usually less psychologically damaging in the long run, but that led to formal inquiry.

Iruka was patient with his students by choice, their parents by necessity, and he was sick and damn tired of Yamanaka-kun's parents demanding to reschedule _after_ two hours of ranting about why Isamu needed to be supervised and other such pointlessness. He wanted only the best for his students, but if he had to sit through it, so would the boy.

He heard a knock at the door. "Hey, kohai."

Iruka snapped out of his mental rant. "Oh, Mizuki-sempai! You found him?" he asked, relieved.

"…Sort of," the older man hedged.

Iruka fell right back into his bad mood. "Sort of?" he said accusingly.

Mizuki shrugged, looking completely unconcerned. "His parents found him first. Can I go now?"

Iruka felt the wind go right out of his sails. Yamanaka-kun's parents were on their way – with Yamanaka-kun. His eyes widened, and he ran back to his desk to double-check his files. He did not want to have to repeat this do-over, _again_.

"Mizuki-sempai, go!" he hissed. "Get- hurry, go out the back. You don't want them to see you, and I have to get ready, and-"

Iruka stopped. Mizuki-sempai was already gone. He shrugged, going back to his papers. He had to get this right, not even so much for his own sake but for Yamanaka-kun's. True, he was passing and even seemed to enjoy the more mainstream courses (as much as any thirteen-year-old boy could), but it didn't take a professional shrink to see that the boy was not at all comfortable with the idea of spilling blood, even after years in the Academy. Yamanaka-kun was miserable. More than that, he was terrified, and Iruka knew too well what happened to rookies that froze up in the field without an instructor to save their skins.

Iruka froze in the middle of his worries. _Oh, double-darn it!_

If Yamanaka-kun's parents had caught him on his way out of school, then he must have still had his piercings in, which meant yet another reason for Yamanaka-san to talk all their ears off. Iruka knew it was a stupid thing to be worried about, but he had papers to grade, he had prank countermeasures to place and he just wanted to get some sleep.

It was never-ending days like this that made him wonder why he was a teacher.

* * *

A/N: Did I say two parts? I meant three, or possibly four, or… I don't even know, really.

For the record, I have never taught. I have, however, been occasional errand-runner at my old school and talked to the faculty. Isamu's parents are a fabrication based on what little I know of human nature, and that I needed a reason for a thirteen-year-old to get piercings. I suspect Ino was involved at some point.


	4. A Saboteur's Dilemma

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

BGM: "Nomado" by Rin'.

* * *

A Saboteur's Dilemma

A small figure in a brown coat with a white fur lining, hood pulled over his head, crept down a narrow side street. Anyone who recognized him would be surprised, mostly at the fact that he could be quiet at all. Anyone who had met his mother would be able to guess exactly why he felt like he needed to be quiet.

Kiba glanced over his shoulder, checking for any sign he was being tracked. It wasn't likely that Hana-nee would have heard about that mess with the papers yet, since she was still on duty, but he never knew. It was almost impossible for his mother to hear about it, since there was a general Council meeting today and he knew from a lifetime of dinner-table griping that a supposedly "afternoon" meeting could and would go late into the night for any of a couple dozen different reasons. That didn't mean he was going to just stand around with a target painted on his ass.

Akamaru woofed a skeptical question down from his usual spot on top of Kiba's head.

"I am not running away," he mumbled at the puppy. "I'm calling a strategic withdrawal."

_Running scared_, Akamaru pointed out.

"I am not!"

Silence.

"…Okay, I am, but do you want Kaa-san mad at us?"

Boy and dog shuddered in unison, the answer an unspoken, resounding NO WAY. Akamaru wriggled out from under the hood, jumping down to a convenient pile of random junk and onto the rain-slicked streets.

Kiba yelped. "What the heck, Akamaru? Hana-nee's gonna pitch three kinds of fit if you track alley mud into the house."

_I'll wash in the stream_, Akamaru replied absently. _Find help?_

Kiba stopped to consider that for a second. "Good idea," he admitted. Kiba knew from painful experience his mom would never believe any story he could come up with, and getting someone else to sign the slip was right out. It might fly if Kaa-san was out on some diplomatic mission that required the Inuzuka clan head and literally wasn't there to read and sign the note, but with her likely to be home and cranky long before he went to sleep, that wouldn't work. He could pretend to be sleeping, but no way he'd fool Kaa-san and Kuromaru's senses. Then they'd want to know why he was sleeping, or worse, she would have heard about it from someone else beforehand…

Akamaru whined sympathetically.

"Heh, yeah. We're in this together, right, buddy?"

Akamaru then remembered he was in trouble, too, and whined again.

"What, did you see something?" Kiba froze. "Shit, please don't tell me Hana-nee's here."

_No._

"Then what?" Kiba asked, confused.

Akamaru didn't answer, putting his nose to the ground. This would have been more useful had they had someone to track.

Kiba just kept walking, trying not to jump at small noises.

After almost an hour of wandering around the edges of his usual hangouts, Kiba and Akamaru came to the arcade. It was a new thing, just opened this spring. The inside was just one big room full of coin-operated games that ran off these weird seals that did something really complicated. The mechanism was finicky as all hell, so usually at least one would be down for repairs.

Personal game sets had been around for over a century, but it wasn't until about forty or so years ago that they started getting cheap enough for someone other than the daimyo's kids to play with them. Hana-nee had spent nearly ten minutes asking him security questions after he'd rattled off that explanation. He didn't see what the big shock was. He wasn't stupid, he just hated school.

Akamaru sniffed in a suspiciously placating way.

"Hey! I am not stupid! What kind of partner are you, insulting me like that?" Kiba griped at the puppy as he checked out the games. They cost about 300 ryo a go, so it wasn't exactly cheap, but he still had a little money saved up. _It's not like I'm going to be seeing daylight outside of school and training for a few weeks_, he thought. _If I'm lucky, I'll just get yelled at and grounded. If not, it's special survival training with Kaa-san. I'd rather be locked in a small room with the Uchiha's psycho fan club. Well, almost_.

He decided on Paku-san. The rules seemed simple enough. For 300 ryo, he'd be controlling a little yellow ball with a face painted on for five minutes. It was controlled using a little yellow stick that was somehow connected to the inner mechanism. It "killed" chakra constructs that looked like even smaller white balls, mostly. Animal-looking ones got extra points. Then there were these little fake evil spirits that could possess Paku-san and make him freeze up, running out the timer.

Kiba wondered for a second if the designer had ever been a shinobi, and then figured it didn't matter. If the game worked, it worked.

Akamaru yipped to be let up. Kiba flipped his hood back and waited for the puppy to settle down. Then he put the money in and started playing.

Ten minutes later, Kiba was glaring at the machine like it was his worst enemy. _I can't believe I just blew 600 ryo on that hunk of junk._

_Funny to watch_, Akamaru commented.

"Aw, shut up," Kiba griped.

Kiba turned and sulked his way out of the arcade. On his way out, he spotted a few familiar faces – Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chouji and Uzumaki Naruto.

Hey, the slacker was good at getting out of things! Maybe he could just bribe Shikamaru into coming up with a really good excuse. The promise of a few Ino-free hours ought to do the trick.

…Yeah, hell no. He'd rather just take whatever punishment Kaa-san came up with. Those girls were nuts with a capital "nuts."

Chouji couldn't lie for beans, so that left Naruto.

Kiba could just see fox-face gloating from here. Damn it, he did not want to ask Naruto for help!

…This was going to suck. So much.

* * *

A/N: Oh, poor Kiba. Yeah, I like focusing on side characters, at least when nothing plot-critical is happening. There are a few bits of foreshadowing, or is it worldbuilding? I'm not too sure at this point.

Argh. He barely shows up in canon after the Sasuke Retrieval arc, so it's hard to get his character right. Constructive criticism would be great.

I know I might be a bit inconsistent with naming schemes and honorifics between chapters. I'll go back and fix any glaring errors later.


	5. Troubles

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

BGM: "Nomado" by Rin'.

* * *

Troubles

Naruto focused his senses on the enemy, frantically mashing buttons in an effort to keep the vanguard the heck away from his little guy with the imaginary explosive tags. "Evil, evil – oh, come on!"

Glaring at the "GAME OVER, LOSER" flashing across the screen, he kicked the casing and cursed the lineage of every game designer who had ever worked on the thing under his breath. Sighing, he dug Gama-chan out from under his kosode and started counting out another precious, precious 300 ryo. Ayame-neechan would give him leftovers, so he could afford it, and he was not going to lose to a lousy pile of junk!

Grinning, he fed the money into the slot and got ready for another round. He'd beat the game this time, for sure!

Then he heard a familiar whine, and looked down to see a puppy shooting him the ever-popular Puppy Dog Eyes.

"Oh. Hey, Akamaru," Naruto greeted him.

Akamaru just kept staring, and Naruto got a little creeped out.

"What?" he asked uneasily.

In answer, the puppy turned and indicated a sulky-looking Kiba.

Surprised, Naruto gave the machine holding his money hostage a quick look, then turned to look at his fellow "delinquent". In Kiba's case, "delinquent" just meant he liked to skip class, and his own flashy exits gave him a decent cover to sneak out under. Nice guy to kill time with, but he couldn't be quiet for anything, not even sneaking! And right now, he looked about as happy as one of Akamaru's old chew toys.

Naruto wasted no time saying so.

"Aw, shut up," Kiba barked. "I've got a problem here, and you're the 'excuse guy', so…"

Ah! Now he got it. Smiling, Naruto cheerfully asked, "So, Iruka-sensei figured out that Akamaru drooling on the test papers was your idea, huh?"

Kiba muttered something uncomplimentary at Naruto, and then more clearly replied, "Yeah, he did."

Now Naruto was confused again. "Wait, then why are you asking me?"

"My excuses stink, Choji is the suckiest liar ever, and the only way to get Shikamaru to go out of his way for anything is distracting Ino, which is just – no. Hell no. She's almost as scary as Hana-nee, and a heck of a lot crazier. No."

"She's not that bad," Naruto protested.

"The only reason you think so is because she told you the route that that other fangirl takes to school," Kiba said flatly.

"…Um. So. What did you want to ask me?"

"Kaa-san's at a Council meeting, she'll probably be back after dinner, and she's gonna be pissed. How much for an alibi?"

"Hmm." Naruto made a show of rubbing his chin and Thinking Very Hard.

Kiba straightened, hoping that the resident nutcase would come up with some crazy idea that actually worked, _please…_

"Mm, nope, I got nothing!"

Kiba's last nerve snapped and sent his fist flying at the stupid grin on Naruto's face.

Less than a minute later, they were both thrown out of the arcade. Literally.

Akamaru quietly followed them, looking very put-upon. Nosing at Kiba, he jumped back to let the boy drag himself back to his feet.

"…lousy cheap rotten soggy piece of crap, just disappear already!" Naruto was attempting to remove his foot from a collapsed crate, and when he pried the last bit away, promptly slipped on the rain-slick street.

Sighing, Kiba yanked Naruto to his feet. "I don't even know why I asked you for help."

Yanking his arm back, Naruto quipped, "Because you've got rocks for brains."

"Hey!"

"Seriously, you can just blame it on me," Naruto replied as though it was obvious.

"But you'll get in trouble," Kiba replied.

"I'm always in trouble," Naruto pointed out.

"Yeah, you are, but this wasn't your fault," Kiba protested. "If you didn't do it, you shouldn't get blamed for it."

"Isn't this whole conversation because you didn't want to get in trouble for something you did do?"

"Have you seen my mother?" Kiba whispered, looking around like she'd pop out from behind a pile of crates and start yelling at him.

There was a moment's silence.

"…I wouldn't want her mad at me either. Hana-neechan's bad enough."

Kiba and Akamaru both stopped at that and traded a look. "You know my sister?"

Naruto stumbled on a stray pebble. "Hana-neechan's your sister?"

"You know her, and you don't know that?"

"Hey, all I knew was that she's an Inuzuka, and a vet, and really scary. There are a lot of scary Inuzuka."

"Well, yeah, but still, how…?"

Naruto hesitated, and then decided to press on. "Well, she's a vet."

Kiba blinked. "So?"

"You're an Inuzuka."

"So?"

"So, you'd smell like dog even without Akamaru."

Annoyed, Kiba motioned at Naruto to continue. "So?"

"So, you haven't noticed I smell like fox?"

"…I just figured you had some youkai blood somewhere," Kiba admitted.

Naruto stared for a second. "Wow."

"'Wow' what?"

"You're a clan leader's kid, and you know even less about village politics than I do."

"Hey, shut up!" Kiba growled. "And what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the fact that hanyou aren't exactly well-liked, and most don't have huge clans with a rep for being really loyal and really overprotective and really short-tempered for back-up," Naruto said matter-of-factly.

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'."

Awkward silence ensued, broken only by the scrape of sandals on damp gravel and the steady patter of a puppy's paws.

"So, wait, how _do_ you know Hana-nee?"

"Short version? Some jackass babysitters thought I didn't deserve a 'real doctor'."

Kiba bristled.

Naruto grinned. "So they brought the half-breed to an Inuzuka vet."

"…She beat them up, right?" Kiba asked hopefully.

Half-shouting and waving his arms around, Naruto narrated the encounter. "Hana-neechan yelled at them for a minute, and then she beat the crap out of them, and then she had her dogs drag their sorry asses to the hospital, and then she was really polite at the receptionist until someone fixed my broken arm."

"…Huh."

"Your sister is _scary_," Naruto said gravely.

Kiba rolled his eyes, although he had to admit, the part where she beat them up did sound kind of cool. Kind of. Then he stopped for a second. "Wait, broken arm?"

Naruto laughed. "I, uhh, yeah. I messed up when I was setting up some trigger wires, and I fell."

"So?"

Very quietly, Naruto finished his explanation. "I didn't know how to fall properly yet 'cause I was really little, so…"

Kiba guffawed. "Lame!"

"Screw you," Naruto said evenly. "Now, do you want an alibi or not?"

"I'm kinda surprised you even know the word 'alibi'."

Naruto was up on the nearest roof before Kiba could blink. "Leaving now!" he called down.

"Wait, wait! Hold on, just gimme something I can use."

Naruto scrunched up his face, then brightened. "Got it! Hey, you just didn't want to get me in trouble for something I didn't do, right?"

Kiba took a second to puzzle out that last sentence. "Yeah."

"Then just say I crumbled up some doggy treats on the test papers."

"Wait, then Akamaru and me are still going to get in trouble."

"Yeah, but it'll be mostly my fault instead it being all your fault."

"…That works. Thanks."

"No problem. Oh, and you owe me 300 ryo, 'cause you interrupted me and the machine ate my money."

Kiba shrugged, digging out his wallet and counting out the bills. "Here, now scram before anyone sees me goofing off."

Naruto reached down, snatched the money and scrambled away, laughing.

"I don't even want to know," Kiba muttered. He whistled for Akamaru to hurry up, setting off for home. "C'mon, I want to get home before Kaa-san starts yelling. Hana-nee never told me that story," he complained.

Ten minutes later, Kiba froze. "Wait a second. Naruto said it was something he did do, so when did he mess with the test papers?"

As one, boy and dog realized that they had just been conned out of several weeks' worth of fun.

"NARUTO! You are so unbelievably dead meat when I get my hands on you!"

* * *

A/N: I couldn't just set up a mini-arc without finishing it, could I? (Please don't answer that.)

Naruto POV is hard to write. I think he was a little too open here, but I'm not sure how to fix it… Please read and review!


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